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Re: Also need sleep! Waking to eat or fuss?

Just a few ideas:

1) Try putting him down a little earlier at night. It seems counter-intuitive, but sometimes babies sleep better/longer when they are not over-tired. At 3 months, many babies prefer an earlier bedtime. Try 9, then the next night try 8. See what happens.

2)For the startle reflex - consider "Merlin's Magic Sleepsuit." Around 4 months, my DD outgrew her swaddles and just hated to be swaddled. BUT she still had a TERRIBLE startle reflex and needed to be contained somehow. I stumbled across the sleepsuit and it has worked really well. It allows her to stretch her arms and legs (like she wanted) but it's so thick that it muffles her startle reflex and little jerky movements so she doesn't wake herself up. She's still in it now at almost 6 months. She's not big on rolling from back to tummy (awake or asleep), so I don't know how it would work for a baby who regularly rolls over, but it might be worth a shot. They're not cheap, but maybe you could find a used one on ebay or something?

So if you can't get a mattress without flame retardants (ie. organic & wool wrapped), and don't want to wrap a conventional mattress, then at least have a fan blowing on your baby. http://www.stopsidsnow.com/

DD was waking herself up every 1-2 hours on average (max 4 hours), until I started putting her on her front at around 1mo (starting with a supervised nap). Her night sleeps began extending until they levelled off at 7 hours on average. No weight or milk issues so far at 3mo and Mum is actually getting some decent sleep

I, too, would recommend sidelying. It took us a while to get it to work, but we practiced during the day when we were both in better moods, and now we can get a good latch in the dark, if necessary. I remember going to sleep with DD on the sidecar and waking up with her asleep beside me, boob in her mouth. The problem would be with your soft bed and falling asleep, which is almost inevitable. Perhaps a firm twin bed on the floor?

Re: Also need sleep! Waking to eat or fuss?

Side-lying is great. It is a bit of an advanced technique, since it is harder to control your baby's latch on. However, your baby is totally capable of learning it at 3 months. I trained my first to it from birth; it just takes a little time. We did it on a full size bed for her. We did not co-sleep, she was in her own crib, so she would come over to our bed for nursing. On occasion, I would fall asleep and wake up an hour later, but a lot of times I would doze or rest until she was done and put her back in her crib. It is much more restful than sitting up to nurse even if you are not asleep.

As for sleep, you just have to get used to sleeping in chunks. I agree with the PP who said to try getting baby to bed earlier if you can. Grabbing more little chunks of sleep is a good thing. I worked my first down by half hours at about that age.

Re: Also need sleep! Waking to eat or fuss?

Originally Posted by @llli*still.here

Can you use a larger receiving blanket to swaddle? That's what I did with my son. He was well over a year old by the time I stopped swaddling him. Heck, he's almost 4 now and I wish I could still get away with it. Granted, he's got other issues that prevent him sleeping well. But I swaddled my daughter until she was about 9 mos old and she started turning over very early.

I swaddled Joe until he was over nine months old! And I cried when he was physically too large for the swaddle, because even swaddled, he woke way more often than your baby! So anyway, I would just get some bigger swaddles. I used a two part swaddle that was very firm and hard to wiggle out of (I actually made a video ages ago for a friend - PM me if you want to watch it). Some babies really love a swaddle.

You can call me JoMo!

Mom to baby boy Joe, born 5/4/09 and breastfed for more than two and a half years, and baby girl Maggie, born 7/9/12.

Re: Also need sleep! Waking to eat or fuss?

Swaddling with a blanket offers you lots of options for transitions. You can do both arms in, one arm in/one out, or both out. (We do a half-swaddle our 4 mo old -- both arms out, the swaddle starts right under the armpits -- that way he can't kick off the blanket, but he hates having his arms in tight.) Also, you can vary the tightness of the swaddle and gradually loosen it slightly when ready to transition to a sleep sack or footed PJs later (I keep mine fairly tight around the mid section but give his legs more room to move around). Recommend looking for oversize receiving blankets though, the normal size ones aren't big enough once baby isn't a newborn anymore (personally like the Swaddle Designs brand -- the marquisette blanket is a good lightweight weave, perfect for wrapping up baby).